What Happens to Your Water Before the Coast Floods?

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What if climate change didn't flood
your home tomorrow, but made your

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drinking water undrinkable today?

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This is the How to Protect the Ocean
podcast, your weekday ocean news update.

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If you care about staying informed about
the ocean every single weekday, Monday to

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Friday, hit that follow button right now
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to, so you don't miss tomorrow's story.

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Today, we're answering
one important question.

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How is rising sea level quietly
transforming life in coastal Bangladesh?

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And why is this a warning for
coastlines around the world?

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Now, this episode is based off of
a story I found on Mongabay News.

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You can go to mongabay.com to
find out more about this article.

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I'll post the article in the show
notes so you have access to it.

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But today we're gonna be talking about
sea level rise in a country that we

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rarely talk about on this episode.

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But Bangladesh is a very
interesting country.

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I've covered it on Beyond Jaws
before with Dave Ebert where we talk

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about shark fisheries in Bangladesh.

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But today we're gonna be talking
about coastal communities that are

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getting more sea levels, getting
more salt in their drinking water,

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which is really difficult to imagine.

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'Cause when people talk about
sea level rise, they usually

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imagine dramatic images.

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Flooded streets, homes underwater,
storm surges crashing over sea walls.

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Those images are real,
and they actually happen.

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But they're not the first sign
that the ocean is changing.

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Sometimes the first sign
is something much quieter.

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You turn on the tap, the
water tastes slightly salty.

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Your crops stop growing.

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Your family starts getting sick
because fresh drinking water

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is becoming harder to find.

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That's the reality many people are living
along the coast of Bangladesh today.

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A new commentary published by Mongabay
argues that saltwater intrusion

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driven by rising seas and worsened
by human activities is already

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reshaping entire communities long
before permanent flooding arrives.

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This is not just a story that
centers around Bangladesh.

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Obviously, this is where the example is,
and this is where the commentary comes

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from, but this is really an ocean story
because one of the biggest impacts of sea

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level rise isn't the water we can see.

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It's the water beneath our feet.

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Bangladesh sits on one of the
largest river deltas in the world.

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Three major rivers, the Ganges,
the Brahmaputra, and the Manga

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empty into the Bay of Bengal.

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For centuries, these rivers have
carried fresh water and nutrient-rich

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sediment that supports farming,
fisheries, and millions of people.

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But today, that balance is changing.

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As sea level rise, saltwater
is pushing farther inland,

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pushing the freshwater back.

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It doesn't simply just flood
fields, it moves into rivers.

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It seeps into groundwater.

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It contaminates ponds and wells that
families have relied on for generations.

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The result is something called
saltwater intrusion, and it's

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exactly what it sounds like.

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Saltwater moves into places
where freshwater used to exist.

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I've covered an article where the
saltwater intrusion is happening

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in Florida, where we're starting to
see flooding that's happening not

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only on top of the land, but in the
groundwater and underneath the land.

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So when floods happen, it actually comes
from the soil first and goes through the

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pores of the soil and up onto the land.

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Once that happens, drinking
water becomes scarce.

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Agricultural soils become less productive.

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Even trees and freshwater
wetlands begin to struggle.

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The commentary points out that sea
level rise is only part of the problem.

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Reduced river flow, upstream water
management, coastal development, shrimp

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farming, and stronger cyclones all make
it easier for saltwater to move inland.

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Just think about, like, stronger
cyclones pushing that water further

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and further inland into groundwater and
allowing that saltwater to stay there.

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So in other words, it's
not just one single issue.

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It's several pressures
combining into a growing crisis.

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And because the changes happen
gradually, they often receive far less

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attention than floods or hurricanes.

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And here's why this story deserves
even more of our attention.

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Fresh water is one of the most
basic resources any community needs.

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Without it, everything becomes harder:
growing food, raising livestock,

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running businesses, maintaining
just public health in general.

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When fresh water becomes salty,
families often have to travel

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further to collect clean water.

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Now, if you think about it, like I
remember going back to my elementary

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school days, even my high school days.

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You know, in Canada, we
talk about fresh water.

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We hold twenty percent of the
world's fresh water, and we share

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that with the US through a border.

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And I remember, especially with the
amount of fresh water lakes that we

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have in Canada too, like we have a lot.

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And I remember a teacher telling
me one day that that's gonna become

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what wars are gonna be about.

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It's gonna be about the very
basic resource of fresh water

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because fresh water powers what
I just talked about everything.

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And without fresh water, you just
don't have healthy populations,

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or you have to adapt to make sure
that you have healthy populations.

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And because the salt water's intruding,
on our fresh water resources, we

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are having more and more problems.

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We have government bodies that are
dedicated to making sure that our

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source water for our drinking water
is clean, not just from salt, but

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from just chemicals and nitrates
and ammonia and all these other

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nutrients that are around in the water.

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So just think about that.

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Think about how important salt water has.

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Like farmers may actually lose
harvests because many of the

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crops can't tolerate increased
salinity in these Bengal regions.

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Some communities switch from growing
rice to farming shrimp because salt

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water now dominates their landscape.

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That may provide income for some
people, but it actually changes

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local ecosystems and food production.

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There's another consequence we
don't talk about either: migration.

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When farmland becomes less
productive and fresh water

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disappears, people begin to leave.

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Some move to nearby cities,
others relocate farther inland.

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Climate migration is often described
as something that will happen in

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the future, but many communities in
Bangladesh, it's already happening.

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We've seen it happen because of sea level
rise on small island communities as well.

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And this isn't unique to one country.

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Saltwater intrusion is becoming a
concern in coastal aquifers around

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the world, including, like I said,
Florida, like in the United States.

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Recent research has found declining
groundwater levels and increasing risk of

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seawater contamination across many coastal
regions from Asia to North America.

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That's what makes Bangladesh
such an important case study.

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The country itself is experiencing one
of the earliest and clear examples of

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what a saltier future could look like.

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So the question really is, like, is
there anything that communities can do?

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The answer is yes, believe it or not.

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But there isn't just one single solution.

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So protecting and restoring mangrove
forests can help reduce storm surges

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impacts and slow coastal erosion.

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So just keeping the coast green
essentially, like keeping it

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natural, naturalizing coast.

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I remember being at a

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Coastal Zone Canada conference.

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And it's a lot of engineers
and a lot of people who are

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doing things along the coast.

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The one study that I was listening
to was a study from an engineering

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firm where they talked about how they
were re-naturalizing the coastlines

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along the Mississippi Delta.

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And they were doing that because at one
point they hardened those coastlines

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because they were eroding away.

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Some parts were eroding and
some parts were building.

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But what they didn't realize is that
when something was eroding away, it

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was building another coastline
that was very, very important.

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And when they hardened the coastline
that was eroding away, there was

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no other sand or dirt or sediment
to build up the other coastlines.

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And we started to lose other coastlines,
changing, permanently changing the

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shape of the Mississippi Delta, which
affected a lot of indigenous people who

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lived there and had their lands there
and had their people, their ancestors

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buried there for many, many, many, many
years, like generations and generations.

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So they went back to
naturalizing those areas.

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So, you know, a lot of times in Bangladesh
and other places where you start to take

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away mangrove forests for shrimp farming
or coastal development, you start to

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lose that security system, and that
could stop sea level rise from actually

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intruding and saltwater intrusion from
actually happening at a better rate

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than you would if you took it all away.

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The biggest thing really, the point of
this part here is that, you know, we need

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to protect our coastal systems, right?

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You also, need to look into,
like, improving freshwater storage

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systems, which allows communities
to capture rainwater before

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saltwater reaches local supplies.

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Better groundwater management can
reduce over-pumping, which makes

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saltwater intrusion even worse.

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Engineers are also exploring
improved embankments, river

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management, and nature-based
solutions that work with coastal

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ecosystems instead of against them.

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And at the same time, the biggest
driver remains global climate change.

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The faster sea levels rise, the
harder it becomes for communities

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to stay ahead of the problem.

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And that's why this story
matters far beyond Bangladesh.

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Whether you live in Florida, Atlantic
Canada, the Netherlands, here in

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Ontario, small island nations in the
Pacific, or anywhere else along the

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coast, the same process is unfolding.

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The timing may be different, the severity
may vary, but the physics are the same.

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As oceans rise, saltwater moves
inland, and once freshwater resources

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become contaminated, recovering
them may be extremely difficult.

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One thing I appreciate about this
Mongabay commentary is that it reminds

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us climate change isn't only measured
in centimeters of sea level rise.

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It's measured in everyday decisions,
like, "Can I drink this water?" Not

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to say, "Hey, sea level's gonna rise
one centimeter in the next generation

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or the next, like, 50 years." That
number doesn't equate to people.

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But the fact is, like, can I drink
this water, or can I grow food

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here, or can my family even stay?

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Those are the questions people
are increasingly asking, and

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they have to answer for them.

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And those are the questions
that most coastal communities

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may face in the decades ahead.

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So sea level rise isn't
just about losing land.

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It's about losing fresh water.

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When the ocean changes, it's
flowing beneath our feet.

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It changes how people
live, work, and survive.

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The ocean is always a people story.

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I want you to remember that.

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The way we manage climate change,
the way we conserve the ocean, is

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we manage the people around it.

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That's how we help not only the
people who depend on it, but the

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people who are affecting it as well.

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That's the episode for today.

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I would love to hear what you think.

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You can hit me up my socials.

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Links are in the show notes.

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And of course, if you wanna support this
podcast or the YouTube channel that I have

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or any of the efforts that I have to make
your ability to understand the ocean a

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little bit better every single weekday,
please feel free to support me on Patreon.

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Go to speakupforblue.com/patreon.

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That's speakupforblue.com/patreon
to help support the show.

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Thank you so much for joining
me on today's episode of the How

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to Protect the Ocean podcast.

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Have a great day.

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We'll talk to you next
time, and happy conservation.